Charity

Giving Back to the Community

Many of the industrial plants are actively involved in their community. They provide educational support for schools and libraries, environmental awareness programs and community improvement actions, among many other programs.  A few of the plants and some of their involvements are:

  • Dow Chemical Company - contributes heavily to Habitat for Humanity; supports United Way; provides local school with financial support, as well as volunteers to read to the students, tutors, judges for science fairs, and other areas of need.
  • Monsanto - implemented a fund specifically for charitable contributions to the communities of their employees around the world providing for flood, tornado, and earthquake relief, among other things.
  • Orion Refining Corporation - supports the United Way, Sacred Heart School, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra's Southern Serenades Plantation Series, and the local department of recreation.
  • DuPont - contributes to colleges and universities worldwide, as well as programs that "support sustainable improvements" in education, workforce, and community.
  • Occidental Chemical - built schools, medical clinics, and daycare centers in rural areas near their international operations and provided the necessary training to sustain development.
  • Praxair - assists public libraries of their communities in achieving both long- and short-term goals through their grant program called Library Links.
  • Formosa Plastics Corporation - provides scholarships, funds, mentors, tutors, etc., for educational advancement in local schools and universities; contributes time and resources to community events, including: Louisiana Special Olympics, March of Dimes Walk-a-thon, Trash Bash, and the United Way among others.

Although this does not nearly cover all of the companies of Louisiana's Chemical Corridor or their involvements, it serves to show the charitable impact the industry has on its communities.

 

Giving to the Families of Their Own Dying.

As a member of the health and safety committee in his labor union, Ray Reynolds, a former plant worker of Lake Charles, told PBS's "Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report" that "when anyone died inside the local union, my job was to bring them

a Bible and a check from the union. And we would do that within the first 24 hours, so the widow and the family would have some money to live on until the insurance would come in. And I started seeing people getting sick and people dying." Ironically, Reynolds has since been diagnosed with toxic neuropathy - "a disease likely related to exposures to chemicals."

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